Specifics, not platitudes

Posted: Thursday, January 26, 2006

SAVANNAH MAYOR Otis Johnson accurately understands that the community has, in his words, reached a "tipping point" on crime. Such timing gives the mayor and City Council a perfect window of opportunity to take bold steps to make all neighborhoods safer.

This opportunity can't be squandered - not by a mayor and council members who are halfway through their four-year terms and will face voters next year.

People want to know, specifically, what their elected leaders are doing to improve public safety.

They want tangible actions and measurable results. Not windy promises.

They want to feel confident that their elected representatives, under Savannah's council-manager form of government, are working with City Manager Michael Brown to put anti-crime policies into practice and a stable, fully staffed and equipped police department on the streets.

Unfortunately, when it came to crime-fighting, the mayor and council's town hall meeting that attracted about 300 people to the Savannah Civic Center on Wednesday night was too short on specifics and too long on platitudes.

For example, neither the mayor nor city manager had much to say - until prodded by questioners from the audience - about three key developments related to reducing crime:

What is the city doing to reduce the turnover rate within the Savannah-Chatham Metropolitan Police Department?

What is it doing to recruit a new police chief?

What is it doing to make the police department, the city's front-line protection against criminals, more effective?

The mayor did say that existing vacancies in the 380-member department should be filled by March. (The city's official line earlier this month was 44 vacancies, although the department was unofficially shorthanded by a larger number because some police cadets were on the payroll but still in the academy. Seven new cadets graduated this month.)

But little was said about boosting police pay to help reduce the attrition problem. What good is filling existing vacancies if the city is losing its best, experienced officers to other cities that reward and encourage professional work?

Mr. Johnson hinted that raising salaries would create pay inequities in other city departments. But in this case, the mayor is wrong.

Policing the streets is more difficult than sweeping the streets. The city's pay grades should reflect that difference.

If the mayor and council have better ideas about reducing attrition - or if Mr. Brown does - that's fine. But now is the time to present them, then act quickly on them.

It's good that Sheriff Al St. Lawrence is lending deputies to fill the holes in the merged city-county police department. But this is a temporary fix. It's the city and county governments' responsibility to keep the police department at full strength. Elected officials can't expect the sheriff to bail them out.

Mr. Brown has said that he expects to have a new chief in place in six months. How will that chief be selected?

The city must find the best person for the job, which means doing a national search. The city manager, who will do the hiring, said Wednesday night he will ask citizens for their help - the same path he followed when Dan Flynn was hired in 2000. Unfortunately, the city lost almost three months of recruiting time since the former chief announced his retirement in early November.

Another questioner, Virginia Mobley, lives in the city's midtown area, which is patrolled by the police department's central precinct. That precinct, one of six, led the pack in serious crimes in 2005 - a year in which serious crimes in Savannah jumped 5 percent. She rightly questioned the wisdom of shuffling officers out of that precinct when crime is spiraling. She didn't get a straight answer.

Instead, there were vague responses about implementing some of the mayor's Public Safety Task Force recommendations from last year. Again, officials were short on specifics.

That doesn't mean the two-hours-plus session was a bust. The mayor, council and city manager can properly take bows for reducing slum housing, increasing home ownership and helping minorities start and run their own businesses. These positive efforts improve the city's quality of life.

Crime, however, undercuts all these initiatives. What good is owning a home or running a business when you don't feel safe?

City officials must seize the moment. The window of opportunity is open for them to keep the police ranks filled and take big steps to improve public safety. But it won't be open forever.